Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/916068
8 The PCB Design Magazine • December 2017 I'm sitting here in Atlanta in a house with no power, watching the snow blow sideways while I work on whatever I can do in Word. It's starting to get cold inside, but after a week in Munich for productronica, I'm used to cold weather! It was freezing every day in Munich, which is fitting, because parts of the city are frozen in time. Much of Marienplatz looks like it must have in the 1500s, despite the Allies' carpet- bombing efforts. We visited a church that prob- ably dated to the Renaissance, and there were photos on the wall showing a priest giving Mass in 1945 with sunlight shining through the miss- ing roof. Munich is a resilient city. After WWII, the residents rebuilt it, brick by brick, with the "Trümmerfrau," or "rubble women," leading the way, because of the absence of adult males. They took care of business. Munich isn't afraid to take a chance on a new idea. Their city government switched from Windows to a customized version of Linux 10 years ago, and just recently voted to switch back to Windows. (In case you're curious, other users of desktop Linux include the DoD, CERN, Chi- na, and North Korea.) And Munich is clean. I didn't see any trash on the street. There aren't a lot of public trash cans, because someone could put a bomb in a trash can. Even in the cold and sometimes rainy weather, everyone I met in Munich was as nice as they could be. Most people in Munich speak English, and total strangers would walk up and ask if I needed help finding the right train. The trains were pretty easy to use, once I'd ridden them a few times. The main train station, the Hauptbahnhof, runs like its own city, with doz- ens of little restaurants, bars, and grocery stores. Editor Patty Goldman and I spent a day sight- seeing in Marienplatz and trying to figure out the train system before the show started. by Andy Shaughnessy I-CONNECT007 THE SHAUGHNESSY REPORT